My Go-To Chopped Salad

I learned this basic Technique from Adelle Davis in Let's Cook It Right. She recommended that we quickly toss our salad in oil to stop oxidation and loss of nutrients. It doesn't take much if you are watching calories; you just toss it a few more times to make sure it all gets coated. then you add your vinegar or lemon juice and seasonings and toss again. You basically are making your dressing right in the bowl while minimizing vitamin content loss. Pretty clever! I have done my salads this way since the 1970's. I have settled on olive or other good oil plus red wine vinegar and garlic salt to taste. That combination makes me happy. As for you, the sky's the limit! Experiment. No two salads need to be the same. Mine never are.

These days, I love a good chopped salad that has everything BUT lettuce or other greens. That way, leftovers don't get limp and soggy. You can always add greens right before serving if you want them. Here's what I do.

Chopped "Kitchen Sink" Salad

Chop up a selection of low carb vegetables. Add oil early on and toss periodically if you want to maximize nutrient protection. Here is a list of possibilities to get you started.

celery
a small amount of carrot
cucumber
fennel
jicama
mushrooms
peppers, green or colored (red peppers have twice the vitamin C of green peppers)
radishes
kohlrabi
sweet onion
tomato
snow peas
cauliflower
broccoli stalks or florets
cabbage
bok choy

For a what I call a hearty salad, a complete meal in a bowl, add some proteins in any combination

meats - ham, chicken, turkey, beef, tuna, crab, shrimp, leftover steak, etc.
cheeses - cheddar, Swiss, colby-jack, feta, etc.
chopped up hard boiled eggs

Toss with oil, then the acid of your choice as described above. I wonder how lime juice would do?

Make your salad more interesting by adding

olives
artichoke hearts
water chestnuts
a few nuts or seeds
crumbled bacon
herbs you like
a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese

If you can afford the carbs, try adding a little chopped apple or pear to the mix. My husband loves it this way.

Season to taste with salt and pepper or Mrs. Dash or whatever you like. Toss gain thoroughly and enjoy.

I make this in big batches and happily eat this on two or three successive days. The veggies just get more marinated with time.

For Liverwurst Lovers Only!

My devious mother kept serving me liverwurst until I learned to like it. It was many years later that she admitted to me that she, herself, didn't care for the stuff! Well, I learned to love it so much that in junior high, I invented the liverwurst and dill pickle sandwich, a combination I still adore to this day. I remember taking it for lunch for about three weeks straight, and getting my mom to buy me kosher baby dills. Or was it Polish baby dills? Whichever it was, they were nice and crunchy.

I recently tried this and another spread recipe in an attempt to find more low carb ways to enjoy liverwurst. This one was by far the winner in my opinion. I thought we had sugar free pickle relish in the pantry, but apparently I was mistaken. So what could I do but turn to my old friends, the crunchy little baby dills. My intent was to stuff it into celery ribs, but I ended up eating it straight up with a spoon over a number of days.

Here is the original recipe. Just substitute the dill for the (sugar free) sweet pickles or relish to try it my way. When I get the sweet relish, I'll make a batch and let you know what I think.

POOR MAN'S LIVER PATE, low carb version

1/2 lb. liverwurst (chunk) (you might want to leave it out to soften or nuke it briefly) 3 tbsp. chopped (sugar free) sweet pickles or relish (or dill baby gherkins, finely diced) 1/4 c. chopped onions 1/4 c. salad dressing or mayonnaise (I used Duke's mayo, which is made w/o sugar) 2 tsp. prepared mustard 3/4 tsp. Worcestershire sauce 1/2 tsp. Tabasco sauce Season to taste with salt. Mix into ball and chill thoroughly. Take out 1/2 hour before serving. Serves 6 to 8.

 adapted from http://www.cooks.com/recipe/kt0fc9cs/poor-mans-liver-pate.html

Addendum:
Okay, I made this recipe as written, using sweet onion and sugar free relish. Admittedly, I didn't measure, just assembled it by eye, but my eye is pretty good after 50 years of cooking! I find it too sweet for my taste.

It's still surprisingly good, and many people may prefer it with the sweet relish, but next time I make it, I'll start with about a tablespoon of the relish, see how I like it, and go from there.

I will say that after all this time eating low carb, my taste buds are extremely sensitive to sweetness. I can taste it in certain brands of mayonnaise, and most recently, I tasted it the first time I made this (with the dill pickles). Why? It was in the Worcestershire sauce! I checked the label, and there it was.

Once I get the sweet relish ratio right and satisfy myself about that, I suspect I'll go for the dill pickle version most of the time. Either way, though, it's good stuff.

Low Carb Pork Chops with Creamy Vegetable Sauce

I recently invented this, and we loved it.  This is how I made it.

Ingredients

4 pork chops
Paula Deen's House Seasoning, or your favorite seasoned salt to taste
4 T. butter

I medium onion, quartered and thinly sliced
1 cup red radishes, diced
about 6 baby carrots, sliced thin (adds a little color)
1.5 cups celery, sliced thin (include the leaves if you have some, for extra flavor)
2-3 cloves garlic, minced (adjust to your taste, more or less)

1/2-1 cup half & half or cream (I had some half & half to use up)
3/4- 1 t. chicken base
1 pinch savory
1 pinch thyme
salt and pepper or seasoned salt if needed, to taste

Season chops and cook in butter in a large skillet that will hold the vegetables in the next step.
Remove when nearly done, set aside.

On medium-high heat, add onion, sliced vegetables and garlic to butter in pan. Stir often, and scrape the brown goodness off of the bottom of the pan when and as you can. Add half & half or cream and chicken base. Stir to dissolve the base and add the savory and thyme. Add pork chops if they need more time, and let it cook down, stirring, until a little sauce remains and has thickened a bit. No other thickener is needed. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed. If you didn't add the chops earlier, add them now and allow them to reheat before serving.

Note: You want the radish cubes to be thoroughly cooked so they lose their radish "bite." When they do, they make a pretty passable substitute for little red potatoes.

Eggplant Lasagna, Low Carb Tomato-Meat Sauce

These two recipes were so good, I didn't have to tweak them at all. So in all fairness, I need to send you to the site they came from. They are worth the trip: delicious, satisfying, they store well in the refrigerator or freezer, and reheat like a dream.

Yes, they involve a little more investment of your time, but you get enough leftovers and eating satisfaction to more than make it worth your while. I did the sauce and baked the eggplant slices on one day, and mixed the cheese and assembled the lasagna on the next. I have enjoyed it every time, and so has my non-low carb husband.

Eggplant Lasgana:
http://peaceloveandlowcarb.com/2013/09/eggplant-lasagna-with-meat-sauce.html

Low Carb Tomato Meat Sauce:
http://peaceloveandlowcarb.com/2013/05/tomato-meat-sauce-recipe-and-my-new-spirelli-spiral-slicer-low-carb-paleo-gluten-free.html